


Crossing Wires

by Sixes_and_Sevens_and_Maybe_Eights



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: All colors, Dubious Consent, F/M, Minor Character Death, Multi, Murder Mystery, Other, Slow Burn, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:48:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27908482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sixes_and_Sevens_and_Maybe_Eights/pseuds/Sixes_and_Sevens_and_Maybe_Eights
Summary: “You alright?” He asked, his voice low and steady but his eyes searching for something in Blue’s.The space cadet shifted uncomfortably.Somehow his steady amber gaze always made them feel like a rabbit under the watch of a large cat. So instead, they averted their eyes back to their tray. They took a moment to swallow harshly and clear their throat before responding.“Uh yeah, yeah just you know… long day… days.”Blue chuckled half-heartedly, twirling their spoon in the air in a ‘given the circumstances of everything’ sort of gesture, hoping to ease his concern. “But hanging in there.”
Relationships: Black/Blue (Among Us), Black/Red (Among Us), Blue/White (Among Us)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 25





	1. Rough Start

Blue’s eyes just about glazed over as they stood staring, watching the agonizingly slow transfer bar tick on the wall mounted screen in admin. The small, inaccurate time estimate it provided bounced back and forth between 2 hours, to 30 minutes, to five days as accurately as if a person were to throw a handful of paint at the wall and try glean the closest number it resembled.

The space suit clad crewmate couldn’t help the groan of irritation that escaped their lips, drooping into a slouch so that they could lean their head against the wall. The bulk of the regulation helmet clunked against the metal dully as their eyes glared at the stuttering upload bar.

‘Mocking little bastard’

Upload and downloads were one of the simpler tasks on the ship, but the problem with it was that it took forever and the holodeck’s connection length was short. Short and finicky. So much so that if not enough attention was paid to it for even two seconds a person might miss a confirmation or disconnect by mistake. If that happened, they’d be forced to start the whole damn thing over.

The crewmate would have gladly dragged a chair over if all of the furniture on the ship wasn’t bolted to the floors. A safety precaution that, sure, made sense. There was no need to navigate a debris field of tables and chairs if something happened to the ships ability to regulate gravity, but in this moment, Blue desperately wished there was at least one exception for. A stool or fold out canvas chair even.

Frowning the moniker-matched blue suited crewmate acknowledged that they might be a little more tired and cranky than normal. The whole crew was. The expedition was just over three weeks into its journey when something had gone terribly wrong with the ship’s navigation. The carefully charted route to the first destination had been skewed horribly off course, plunging the whole crew into a work scramble for their lives.

Whether an error in the system occurred, or if it was a mistake by one of the crew, nobody seemed to know yet. But the ships new route had hooked them all straight through a notorious asteroid belt with disastrous results. No one had even noticed the coordinates were off until the first screeching scrapes and crashes shook the hull and sent the Skeld into red alert. There hadn’t even been time to call a meeting to discuss a game plan. Everyone’s regular tasks were over ridden immediately, blipping up attention icons all over the ship and from then on it had been orders and instinct with everyone running around like mad working the last 48 hours straight to get systems back online and mitigate the damage the large chunks of indifferent space rocks had dealt.

And the damage was extensive.

Disconnected wires, leaking fuel tanks, faulty data links. Name it and it had probably had something wrong with it. Tracking all the issues proved more difficult with Communications on the fritz, the Ships one communication tether with Mira HQ and even internal connection aboard the ship disconnecting.

Every time it did, people’s listed tasks were obscured from their holodecks screen, forcing them to run around and look for them manually which took considerably longer. When it was up, the crew quickly realized their personal radios overwhelmed the system and had to go on radio silence. That had left the ships hard-wired emergency buttons as one of the only one of the only ways a crew member could call for a group emergency meeting if it was needed.

Blue had spent most of the last few hours getting the ships defenses back into operation. Their output had needed recalibration since had it taken the brunt of most of the initial hits. They noted that while entire crew would most certainly be dead without the shield’s protection, they had survived by the smallest margin.

A lot of the crucial machinery wasn’t looking its best on the older ship. For strong starters, they were already on the back up oxygen regulator, an outdated hunk of junk that threatened to clog itself constantly if the crew didn’t clear the filter every so often. And it had to be kept clean because if that critical bit stopped for even a few minutes, they’d all drop in a matter of seconds. It was under strict attention until someone could get the main systems back up.

The reactor had developed a similarly needy operation. A particularly nasty hit had damaged its automatic internal regulators. With the strain from lost and redirected power the powerful engine was throwing tantrums and threatening to overheat if manual checks weren’t done to maintain it. Between the two and even with an unusually full crew, everyone was stretched thin with their task loads.

The Skeld had seen some better days.

Sighing, Blue shifted uncomfortably against the small reprieve the wall gave, their neck turned awkwardly with the gap the helmet created when they tried to rest their weight on it. It gave her a head ache to think about all the things still left to do.

This might have been one of the more peaceful moments they were able to have in the last 48 hours. It would if weren’t for the repetitive chirps of rejection that filled what would have been silence.

With a pained wince, Blue tiredly turn their tired eyed gaze away from their screen to watch Yellow, standing at the admin table, trying desperately… and failing to get the card swipe to read and register their id card. They could hear the fellow crewmate swear small pleading curses under their breath when the table blared another “ERRR ERRR” horn of rejection at them for their last swipe.

It was hard to tell with the distance and the sheen of the lights obscuring the darkened visor of their suit, but Blue was pretty sure they could hear a sniffle of frustration.

Oh god, their yellow crewmate was starting to cry.

Blue looked back at their own upload screen for a second, sucking in a breath as they chewed their bottom lip. Making a silent deal with themselves, Blue figured if the other wasn’t done by the time the upload finished and if they weren’t already crying themselves, that maybe, they’d give her a hand.

No sooner had they had the thought when a small shift in screen reflection of the space behind them just barely registered in their periphery, and a deep voice sounded just over their shoulder and into their ear.

“Hey Blue-“

“FUCK!”

The tense rocketeer yelped, nearly jumping out of their skin, startling Yellow across the room who also flinched in surprise. Both of them heard a positive beep-beep as the card swipe the sniffling crewmate was in the middle of got accepted. The bright colored crewmate’s gaze went from staring at them to staring at the table incredulously. Blue could swear they heard an echoed laugh from somewhere, maybe down the hall.

Snapping back, Blue swiveled to see White practically looming over them, languidly draped in the doorway behind them, his hand rising in a gesture of no harm intended. He grinned sheepishly through their helmet with innocence, though it was clear found the smaller crewmates reaction funny.

God he was quiet for a guy his build.

“Sorry, sorry!” White started, doing their best to look apologetic. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

A green glare eyed them with suspicion as Blue glowered at him with suspicion. They were close enough to see though the glass of each other’s tinted helmets and despite his clearly tired eyes and lazy grin, Blue could see his face showed an ease genuine softness to his features that made them think he meant it. Warily, they slowly uncoiled their bunched shoulders.

“What, White.” The darker hued crewmate growled halfheartedly, smacking his shoulder lightly in playful revenge.

He chuckled.

Blue felt the scratchiness in her throat, making their voice rougher with wariness, but there wasn’t any real bite in it and they weren’t really angry with him. After all, they would have found it funny if it were the other way around or if they just hadn’t been awake for so long.

Plus, Blue liked White. He was probably the one they got along with best on the ship so far. There weren’t a lot of bonding activities or opportunities aboard the ship, but the two of them had taken to playing card game in the evenings since the start of the voyage. Blue had brought the traditional deck aboard as a trinket. It really helped pass the time in the duller moments of a long voyage and could keep the hands busy, but they had found it was way better with White to play with. By now, the two of them were well known for their boisterous banter and steadfast rivalry as they taught each other new games and strategies, often filling the Cafeteria with howls of victory or defeat, much to the amusement of their fellow crewmates.

Rolling their eyes, the azure colored crewmate turned from White to check if that had screwed up their upload. Thankfully the bar still flicked… albeit slow as ever, or they might have actually given him a wallop.

White looked at the screen a moment, giving a sympathetic whistle for the monotonous task before following up.

“I was just going to tell you, Purple finished with most of the ships diagnostics and we think we tackled everything that needed to be immediately addressed for today.”

“Mm.” Was all Blue hummed in response, still staring at the screen.

“We’re gathering everyone up to get some food and take a mandatory breather. And after that Purple mentioned we are going to have to decide who gets the first nightly round to keep an eye on the more.. uh, you know, vital tasks.”

Blue nodded to let him know that they understood and folded their arms with a sigh. A break sounded extremely nice. They were getting to that point where their eyes were feeling like they were going to burrow their way backwards out of their skull.

Day and night were relative terms on the ship, and sometimes the crew ignored them, but the Skeld’s lighting system mimicked the cycle of a normal and Dim lights rotation every 12 hours that gave the crew a semblance of night and day. The intention was to help everyone’s internal rhythms not go haywire. Being human, living without a sun or moon to orient themselves to could get really disorienting in the eternal night that was space.

White leaned around Blue to address Yellow.

“You got all that?”

Yellow nodded. They had been glaring at the card reader, clearly convinced it had been mocking them.

“Got it.” They croaked, and Blues heart gave a twang of sympathy. If it was to a vote, they were definitely going to let Yellow get a chance to sleep. They just hoped they would also be able to get a wink in themselves sometime before their brain melted out their ears.

“Good,” White sounded, “Nice, well. Yellow, if you’re all done, follow me so we can finish telling the others.”

“Okay, yeah… okay just a sec.” Yellow answered, taking a second to straighten themselves out.” But um I-I still have wires to do in electric…”

“Don’t worry about that for now.” The taller crewmate dismissed with assurance. “You can finish them after the break or tomorrow.”

“B-but I really ought to-” Yellow began to argue, fidgeting their hands together. This time Blue interjected.

“Hey, you heard him, all the stuff that needed to be done today has been done today. You’ve been working hard. You can tackle it with the next load.”

The sunny crewmate seemed to be afraid of being a burden, but Blue couldn’t just watch them melt into a stress puddle over it. They needed rest.

Yellow looked like they were going to protest again, but then nodded, sinking into themselves as they let it go.

Blue pursed their lips while giving the disheveled Yellow a once-over. They gave White a subtle nudge with their elbow, glancing at his face briefly to make sure they had his attention.

“You guys figure out what happened?” Blue whispered quietly. Everything had gotten so tense, Blue felt that the last thing everyone needed was to stir the pot and start pointing fingers on theories as to whose fault this had been. So the elephant in the room was hush hush. But that didn’t mean they weren’t still curious.

White studied their smaller companion for a second, as if considering whether or not he should expand upon it or not, but he relented, sighing and shaking his head no.

“No. Not yet anyways. But hey, we can worry about that when things settle.”

He gave Blue a hearty clap on the back as he turned to leave, letting his palm linger in a comforting circle before he let it drop. Yellow had crossed the room to follow him, waving Blue meekly as they left. Blue gave them a nod with a bit of extra tilt and hoped she could see their small smile though their visor.

Everyone aboard had the habit of slightly over-exaggerating gestures so they’d be clear to read through the suits that Blue found endearing.

“Hey, after you finish that up, you can meet everyone in Caf.” White called back over his shoulder.

“Will do.” Blue droned back. Their task shouldn’t take too much longer they thought to their self, hopeful, because goddamn, the mere mention of food sounded made them salivate. Food and sitting. Blue sucked in a harsh breath tried not to drool at the thought of it as they began rooting for the progress bar to hurry.

It had taken about 15 more minutes before the upload completed. There be more data later to get from electrical, but the system needed time to gather it. So for today, mercifully, Blue found that they were done.

There was a spring to their step, feeling invigorated with a burst of energy for the carrot on a stick that was the promise of food and rest getting closer. Blue hummed happily as they collapsed and tucked their holodeck away into a utility pocket and arched their arms in a big stretch. Their joints crackled with loud satisfying pop as they swung side to side to shake the stiffness that had settled in their body.

As they did, they caught sight of Yellow’s ID card still sitting on the admin table.

Frowning Blue trotted over to retrieve it.

‘They really did need sleep huh. ‘

The admin table blinked softly as they picked it up and Blue’s eyes flickered a glance at the ship’s map, watching the little blips of the crewmates it tracked lit on the screen. It wasn’t a perfect tacker, only showing who was in a room and it took a few seconds to refresh but it was sort of fun to look at.

The noted their own little blip in admin and like four people already in Caf just up the hall. Someone was in nav still… probably Purple if they had to guess, double checking the navigation system for any more errors. And someone was in-

Huh.

Blue looked at the screen a second confused as it flickered an update. They could have sworn someone was in just in electrical. Just for a second. But as the screen refreshed there was crewmate icon again in Medbay and then went out again. Soon after a few more crewmate icons joined Caf all at once.

Blue wonder if that was White and Yellow popping in and out of rooms to check for any stragglers they might have missed. Either that or maybe even the admin table was on the fritz in this disaster of a spaceship.

Holding Yellow’s card, the wary engineer pulled away from the table and headed out to meet everyone in Caf.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still debating what rating this is gonna be and I am open to some persuasion if you have a preference.


	2. Break Time and the Break Down

Blue had meant to head straight to Yellow, but the rations laid out at the table proved to be too great a temptation.

Instead, they absentmindedly pocketed the ID card and promptly forgot about it in their eagerness to B-line it straight for an open seat to help themselves. They offered a waved to those already seated before unlatching the visor port on their helmet, flipping it open so they could tear into their food.

Being the first full meal they'd had in a while and not just some nutrition bar they could shovel down their gullet between tasks, the first mouthful made them want to sink into the ground and happily weep.

Purple was the last one to enter the hall after Blue, making it in a few minutes later from the far right.

Definitely from Nav.

Blue smiled to themselves for their correct assumption.

Unfortunately, the older crewmate looked like he was worn ragged. They could see it in his posture. While his shoulders were still squared, there was a drag to his step as he slumped into bench seat next to Blue with a grunt. Blue offered him a nod, unable to give a verbal greeting in favor of not choking on the greedy mouthful of food they were currently powering though. Purple flipped his visor up the same way they and most of the crew had confirming an unspoken consensus that no one felt comfortable enough yet to take their helmets off completely and had settled for opening the front port so they could eat.

At the center table of the Caf, Blue had taken a seat directly across from White, who was discussing some space weather phenomenon-anomaly something-or-other with Brown while they ate. To their left, Green laid face down on the table, out cold. Staring at them, Blue though they could see the unconscious crewmates lips and cheeks smudged against the glass, a bit of drool pooling in their helmet. They hadn’t seemed to of eaten anything on their plate yet, but their hand had slipped into their mash.

Both Brown and White had turned to the Captain when he joined, White giving him a sympathetic nod like they had to Blue when they arrived while Brown offered a small wave, but the two turned back their talk.

With Purple and Greens’ preferred silence, Blue let their eyes wander as they ate.

On the right side of the room towards nav and weapons, Orange, Pink, Yellow, and Cyan all sat together at another lunch table. To the left closer to medbay, Black, Red, and Lime sat together.

With Blue’s table, Brown, Green, Purple and themself, that made total of 12 crewmates all together.

The crew size was unusual, already passed the fact that it was uncommon to get a full of 10, this crew had 2 extra bodies onboard. Not that Blue was complaining, having 12 hands on deck certainly came in a pinch for the circumstances the ship had encountered and there was certainly enough seating.

And now, everyone was together for the first time since the impact. The large room was mostly quiet, uncharacteristically so when compared to the first few weeks here. There were some quiet murmurs of mild chatter here and there, the clinking of utensils, trays, and the rustling of packaging. Most everyone focused on powering through their rations and nobody really had the energy for much more than that as exhaustion ran rapid.

The juxtaposition reminded Blue of boarding day before everyone had gotten to know each other.

Their particular crew had been a merging of three different groups and the rest soloist. An eclectic mix that had been cobbled together on the last ship out midway station that week, a desperate attempt to pack everyone out by the station’s management. Blue wasn’t sure who all came together, as they were one of the soloists, but they knew for a fact Brown and Purple had at least traveled together before. Their repertoire of stories exceeded them as did their casual interactions.

Blue zoned back in briefly to overhear a small snip-bit from Pink from the right, lamenting about the damage in medbay he helped Brown with, but that was about all they managed to make out.

In the very least, Blue shifted a little, turning to the opposite side of the room to the left. Particularly, while zoning out, they stared at Black who had his back turned to them from where he sat. Black was probably one of the crew mates they had talked to the least and knew even less about. Not that anyone onboard really knew much about each other anyways, they didn’t even use their actual names. Blue mulled over the nicknames they all used based on the colors of their selected suits. It was protocol to call people by their suit colors on the Skeld. It made it easier avoided confusion, easier to address people, easy to know whose gear was whose. But they all knew those weren’t the main reason they were used and the recent incident reminded them of that.

It was no secret that these spaceships and missions were dangerous. Accidents on voyages happened all the time and fatal accidents were not unheard of. Blue had certainly seen a few of their own. Hell, most ships had border line horror and ghost stories of lost voyages, missing crews, and even monsters.

Red had shared a few one night, when the crew had all gotten into a ghost story mood.

A crowd favorite, though it was a well-known among most expeditions. One that many experienced crewmates often swore was true, not that any newbie ever believed them. Brown and Purple declined to comment when Orange had bugged them about it afterward.

The story included creatures in human guise, nearly indistinguishable from anyone else. Monsters that were capable of ripping people to shreds in an instant then smiling to their fellow crewmates the next. Keeping the crew guessing as to who the imposter among them was while it picked them off one by one. People had even gotten air-locked in the hysteria of the trying to figure it out. Whether or not they actually were a monster never to be confirmed as they were left to the cruel void of space.

Red’s theatrics were thrilling, he even got a scream out of Yellow when Orange played along at the height of his story and grabbed her shoulders form behind. It had been kind of funny, but it took the rest of the week for her to talk to either of them again.

Blue wouldn’t admit it, but had taken them a bit longer than usual to get to sleep that night. They spent that night dreaming of their fellow crewmates smiling faces, holding knives behind their backs.

Coming back around to it, Blue figured that HQ thought it would help be a little less traumatizing coming across the remains of a fellow crewmate if they were all stripped down to colors.

After all, if a crewmate did their job, completed the voyage, they’d go on to a new mission where there was a good chance they’d be with a whole new set of crewmate. A new Red who couldn’t tell stories, a Purple who wasn’t a captain, a new White that wasn’t…

Blue frowned suddenly, looking down at the rest of their meal, finding themselves to be a little too disheartened to take another bite. They didn’t enjoy the thought of that. They liked this crew so far, which so rarely happened. And even if not everyone got along perfectly, they didn’t really want to switch again. Not that crews always split; many ran together for several trips if they found they worked well enough together. But this ship was an exception. At the size they were, not everyone couldn’t stay together more than one voyage. At least two would have to part at the next outpost and find a smaller crew to board with.

Breaking their train of thought, Blue felt their skin begin to prickle and glanced up quickly to catching White who had been studying them with a worried expression. They hadn’t noticed his conversation had ended and the brown suited Medic was already getting up and cleaning up the rest of his tray.

“You alright?” He asked, his voice low and steady but his eyes searching for something in Blue’s. The space cadet shifted uncomfortably. Somehow his steady amber gaze always made them feel like a rabbit under the watch of a large cat. So instead, they averted their eyes back to their tray. They took a moment to swallow harshly and clear their throat before responding.

“Uh yeah, yeah just you know… long day… days.” Blue chuckled half-heartedly, twirling their spoon in the air in a ‘given the circumstances of everything’ sort of gesture, hoping to ease his concern. “But hanging in there.”

“Well, you’re definitely holding up better than some,” He grinned encouragingly, lifting his chin at Green who had started to audibly snore. Blue was pretty sure Brown had stolen their packaged muffin when he had gotten up.

“Yeah okay, definitely better than some.” Blue concurred with a snort, giving a wry smile.

White looked like he was going to say something else, but both turned at the movement of Purple, who managed to pull himself up again and cleared his throat loudly. Those in the Caf who were still awake also looked to him immediately. Blue caught a glimpse of Cyan nudging Orange who shot up straight from where he had been propping his head up in his hand.

“Right. So, as you all know the last few hours have been tough.” He clapped his hands together, the gloves giving a powerful but muffled clap, his voice booming over the Caf as everyone went silent.

His voice was sturdy, the gravel of it indistinguishable from his normal commanding, hardened, and over worked self. From where Blue sat, they couldn’t see his face as he had his side to her, but they could see a small shift of his shoulders and knew he was likely scanning over the assembled crew, getting a feel for where all of them were at. A few mostly good-natured murmurs could be heard to the sentiment of ‘that’s putting it lightly’ in response and Purple continued in a dignitary manor. He had their focus and that was enough.

“You should all be proud of your work each of you have put in in this crisis. Thanks to everyone’s efforts, we’ve managed to get most of the vital parts stabilized for the time being.”

Blue poked the remnants of their meal, acknowledging most of this was formality and would match a lot of what White had relayed earlier.

“Though there is still much to be done. I believe you’ve all earned a rest.” The room felt like it had collectively sighed in relief. 

“Some of us already got a head start!” Red shout from the left. That got a few laughs. Green hadn’t even budged with the noise and Orange was obviously on his way out.

“As that may be,” The captain continued with a brisk smile in the corner of his mouth at Red’s resilient class clown attitude, “Some of the ships more vital components are still in a touch and go state. While we’re doing fine enough to travel, it’s going to be at a slower paced than our normal output. It’s going to take a bit longer to get to an outpost for repairs.”

He folded his arms across his chest, rocking his weight back, commanding authority that everyone already gave to him willingly but earnestly unhappy to ask more of his proud crew.

“Which means after this, we are also going to have to start paring down the rations in case of emergency.”

There were groans of annoyance over this. Purple put his hands up to settle them back down.

“This will just until we reach the next out post. With a crew this size, the extra supplies will already be stretched thin if we get to the point they’re needed. So please bear with it.”

“Furthermore,” He continued. “We’re going to have to run a series of watched during night cycles to keep an eye on things. It’s just precautionary measures, but I’m asking for a few of you who feel they can hold out a little longer to volunteer to take first watch so we can start getting some of you back up to speed. After that we can start rotations.”

It was a call to action.

There were some looks exchanged, more discussion here and there. But nobody moved immediately. Blue sighed, regretting their words before they even said them.

“I’ll take a first shift”

Blue blinked in surprise, their mouth agape as they had opened it to speak, their hand even on its way up, but they weren’t the ones who had spoken up first.

They looked across the way to where the almost unfamiliar voice come from in surprise to see Black, who had half raised his hand and was holding there calmly. His visor was down and they couldn’t see his face. He was a quiet guy, and Blue was genuinely shocked that he had spoken up first. Not that he wasn’t hard working. Black had just kind of carried himself like background static. He rarely talked and was kind of a serious, silent, hardworking type. To be frank, Black was one of the sturdier members of the crew as far as Blue could recall. They had seen him be a little exploited by some of their fellow crewmates, as they could hand him just about anything, point him in a direction and he’d lug its destination without a struggle nor complaint. His stamina had to be something else.

That and the fact that he could stand to sit at the same table as Red and Lime who behaved like little gremlins made him practically saint like in Blue’s eyes.

Blue blinked again, remembering themselves.

“I-I’ll take a first.” They piped up, remembering their original intent and raising their hand high. Blue felt the rooms attention shift from Black to them and became tempted to close their own visor and hide.

Too a much lesser degree of surprise, across from them, White also raised his hand. He did so without saying a word, but everyone took note. Then, after a few moments there was an exaggerated sigh of irritation and Cyan lifted up her hand as well, gripping her discontent for the job but volunteering none the less.

“I’ll take one.” She grumbled.

Cyan had a short temper and an abrasive attituded. She could and would complain about almost everything, but when it came down to it, she was no slack. She worked hard and put in the time AND her standards were pretty high. The recent lack of sleep had made her extra prickly though, Blue had seen her chew out Yellow earlier in the day for messing up some of the wires.

“Right, well done.” Purple nodded. “And I-“

“Will be going to bed while we take that watch.” White finished, cutting him off with a cheeky grin.

Purple opened his mouth to protest, but White continued.

“If you think you’re staying up any later, we’re going to have to get Brown to strap you to a bed in Medbay.”

“I will!” The medic threatened from the trash shoot where he was tipping out the wrapping and crumbs from his tray on the furthest side of the room.

There were a few more laughs. It was nice to see the wary crew could still manage some humor.

“Get some sleep old man!” Red jeered while Lime snickered beside him.

Blue felt their lip curl slightly in an attempt to keep down disgust. It wasn’t Red who irritated them, it was Lime. The slimeball had rubbed Blue the wrong way from minute one and they had always done their best to avoid him ever since.

While Red was usually in the spirit of all-in-good-fun with his mischief, Lime’s swarmy face and dangerous pranks rubbed were dangerous. He’d swiftly proven to be a more malicious of the two tricksters.

He was a newer crewmate, this being his first voyage, and in the first week one of his pranks had gotten Orange badly shocked by a loose wire. The voltage was equivalent to that of an electric fence, getting him when he was replacing a panel. Orange screamed bloody murder and had thrown himself backwards several feet. Lime had cackled up a storm of laughter at it, claiming it was just a joke but even his buddy Red had a hard time laughing. There were certain lines a person doesn't cross when working with dangerous equipment.

Orange ended up fine, but Blue noticed when they were fix his mess that if Lime had tinkered with even one wire over, the electricity being routed through it would have been enough volts to stop Orange’s heart cold. Lime had permanently sunk and stayed at the bottom of Blues list since.

Purple shot Red a look, mouth opened to retort, but the older man could read the room pretty well and they all held a similar consensus to Whites claim he needed rest. Blue was caught off guard when the captain turned to her, surprised that the purple Captain would think they would be some left-field voice of reason in this.

Scrunching their face and drawing out countering ' _well_...' sort of whine, Blue shrugged, shaking their head at him lightly.

“They’re right you know. We haven’t seen you take so much as a nap since everything went down. You’re gonna end up in the medbay one way or another if you refuse.” The azure crewmate stated matter-of-factly.

And they didn’t think they were wrong either. Purple seemed like the type of person to work himself into an early grave. He was older and more stubborn than any of the crew and held himself to some high standards. A lead by example kind of guy. The ship ran by majority vote most of the time, but everyone had conceded by both assigned rank and presence, Purple was in charge.

However, it was still majority rules and even he could be out voted. The captain could see this was his loss this time.

Blue chuffed when they heard him grumble under hi breath to himself and smiled. He had accepted the defeat.

Purple adjourned them all after going over a few more basic things to be aware of and a brief of duties to follow. With any luck things could be semi normal in the next day or two.

Luck however did not seem to be on anyone’s side as of late, least of all the Skeld and its crew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hold on where's my keys. This is gonna be a slow start.


	3. Quiet Musings

The crew started to break up slowly from the Caf and began dragging themselves to the ships sleeping quarters for the night.

Brown roused and helped Green up from the table, supporting half their weight as the drowsy crewmate mumbled sleepily at them in complaint and the older crewmate chucked. Lugging Green off, the earthy medic tilted his head to Blue and the rest and bided them a goodnight.

Blue snorted in amusement under her breath. Brown’s voice clearly conveyed that he didn’t envy them.

Before long, everyone else had filtered out and the four volunteers stayed behind to be briefed further by Purple, then said each of them said their good nights to him as they sent him off.

Blue and the rest hung around awkwardly after the captain left. An eclectic bunch if there ever was one among the crew that was running this shift. Blue surmised that other than White and themself, she really wasn’t sure any of them had really ever hung out together before.

Thankfully, the awkward pause didn’t last long.

White gathered them all around and began coordinating the tasks each person had registered so that they could all agree to their assigned duties. Blue caught herself staring blankly at him as he spoke, their attention only breaking when Black’s figure shifted towards her, and Blue feared she may have brought attention to herself. Suddenly they felt the needed to find interest in the color of the paint of the skeld’s walls, their cheeks burning with warmth. No one made mention of it if they had noticed.

With the rag tag groups tasks checked, they all agreed to break a final time, Black and Cyan’s task peeling them off to one side of the ship and Blue and White to the other.

‘Only another few hours.’ Blue thought with bile in their mouth.

The first watch was mostly uneventful, but Blue felt like shit. Their head spun every time they moved to fast and their face felt stuck in a disgruntled grimace.

They had taken the time to clean out the filters in O2, their back to the darkness of the door, something that may have unnerved them more if they weren’t so used to the ship by now, or if they had any extra braincells that weren’t already burning trying to focus on the simplest task of tasks and not passing out.

They had left White in Weapons earlier where he had to make adjustments to some of the wires and wondered dully if he would be passing by soon on his way to his next task. A dull ache stung in their legs as they held a low crouch, scrapping out leaves that had come up from the oxygen bed somewhere on the ship and into a little shoot that lead to trash. Again, they failed to heard White come in the room behind them.

“Almost done?” His voice purred from door way.

Blue lurched slightly with all the panic of someone caught with their hand up a vending machine slot.

“OW.”

Blue’s arm clipped the door loudly, heart fluttering, pulling it back sharply to face him. The smug bastard was leaning on the door frame, arms and legs crossed leisurely looking pleased with himself.

They definitely couldn’t see his face under his helm but his bemusement was palpable across the small room. Blue frowned at him with a pout, briefly wondering how long he’d been standing there. But they were too tired to know… or care really. Minutes felt like hours. Hours felt years. He could have been there for all of five seconds for all they knew.

“Were you enjoying the view?” Blue grumbled back at him, rubbing their arm.

White tilted his head a little. Watching.

“Maybe.” He mused, a smile teasing his voice.

Blue snorted, chuckling a little at that as they pulled themselves up, patting down their pants for any dust that may have stuck.

“Smug bastard.” She grumbled cheerily.

White chuckled, not the slightest bit offended.

“But to your question, yeah, just about done.” Blue brough it back around, stifling the words through a yawn.

The engineer’s eyes watered heavily and they had to take a moment to unlocked their visor to wipe their face. They didn’t notice Whites posture change nor did she notice that he had taken a few more steps into the room.

“You sure you’re holding up okay?” His voice sounded, suddenly closer and softer in tone.

Blue tried nodding, being betrayed by another large yawn that forced open their jaw and pricked more tears in the corner of their eyes.

“Yeah, yeah.” She parroted again at the end of it. “Just tired.” Blue was pretty sure there were about 2 hours until the end of the first shift left, but her body felt heavy and ill with sleep it felt too far away.

Whites hand graced their back as they rubbed their eyes. He crouched next to Blue, studying her handy work on the filters to the side. Eventually she locked the visor back down into place, deciding it was a losing battle fighting the sleepy time tears.

White’s touch had made Blue nervous the first time he ever reached out.

Their body tensing slightly as the connection made her hyper aware of him, a wave of nerves shivering up their spine. Aware. It made them much too aware.

A brush of a hand here, the presence of his weight leaning into theirs there, it sent her spine ridged like a board, briefly stunned and rigged with tension. They had pulled away the first time, without meaning to. Just by instinct, staring at him and sputtering that, quiet suddenly, there were many many things they had to go do.

They stood on edge around him for a day or two after, their rabbit heart wound up with a processing error to their own feelings. It wasn’t until they noticed White was offering them more space and was not offering the touch again and Blue realized they felt sad at the thought of it not happening again. The blue space-cadet was stressed with the notion that they might be good at giving affection, but very much not so good at receiving it.

Yet, to their delight, White seemed to realize that, easing up, offering little things at first until Blue reciprocated, asking for objects or passing them back. Offering thumbs up or a high-five. And their games really helped break the tension.

Smiling slightly at the thought, Blue seemed to remember it had started after a particularly heated game in the cafeteria, that had sent the both of them caterwauling claims of injustice and laughter one late night they had found themselves shoulder to shoulder, coming down from the bubble of exasperated laughter, the pressure of weight sinking supportively against each other.

That was the first time Blue didn’t shy away immediately when they realized, but White had. He withdrew quickly, seeming to be caught off guard and stunned by his own action. It was curious.

After that he somehow always found a way to get close to her and meld his presence into hers with a comforting touch and Blue leaned into it like it confirmed that either of them was there.

Blue blinked back to reality as they realized His face was in theirs, watching them carefully as he often did. She cleared her throat and turned away, cheeks flushing ear to ear. He was smiling that damned smug smile of his, as if knowing.

“What about you?” Blue asked, deflecting as they began closing up the filter shoot. “I’m amazed you seem to be holding up so well.”

His soft chuckle was in Blue’s ear.

“Hanging in there.” His normally smooth voice had layer of low rumble to it, Blue figured it was a sign of his wariness.

‘He had a nice voice’ They logged the thought dimly.

“Just finished some rounds.”

“Mm.” Was all she hummed back.

When the panel clicked shut, Blue straighten out her arms a little in another stretch, her muscles straining with the effort. White’s hand still felt solid on their back. Contemplating, Blue turned around, pulling away from it as their shoulders switched and sunk their back against the panel they just sealed, allowing themselves to slump against it until they were sat on the floor. 

White hadn’t moved yet. Watching. His crouched figure still and his attention trailing Blue like the big stalking snow leopard he resembled.

Blue patted the ground beside herself in invitation.

For a few seconds more, White didn’t move. She could feel his stare though the shade of his helmets tinted glass. A shiver ran the length of their spine as she felt the hairs on the back of her neck bristle.

Then he shifted and his posture relaxed.

“Slacking off Blue?” He teased, aghast in a fake tone of disbelief.

“I won’t tell if you don’t.” she countered. “Now sit your ass down please.”

“Yes Ma’am.” He grinned, sitting down beside the smaller crewmate.

The two of them sat in silence for a little bit, Blue closing their eyes and resting their head back against the wall. They felt White’s side press into their own.

“Hey White.”

He hummed in answer and question.

“Have you been on many missions before this?”

“I’ve been on a few.” He admitted vaguely.

Blue bet he’d been on more than just a few, anybody who had been on at least more than one ship could tell a newbie on sight by the end of it. White didn’t have that air to him. He was professional and charming. He was able to get on the good side of anyone on the crew if he wanted to and he had been good about keeping the peace.

“What about you?”

“This is my fourth mission.” She exchanged, rolling her helmet slightly against the wall. 

“So…not quite a newbie, not quite a veteran then I take it.”

Blue snorted. “Yeah, somewhere in the middle probably.”

“Your other missions anything like this?”

They didn’t answer for a second.

“No. None quiet like this but…”

“But…?” He pressed.

“…”

Blue felt his helmet tonk against the top of theirs.

“Blue?”

“Do you remember that story Red told us in the first few days? The really scary one?”

White was quiet.

“I do.” he answered finally.

Blue shifted their legs a little, pulling them closer to themself.

“Um…” Blue tired and failed to start.

“Your own horror story?” White offered.

Most crews had their own.

Blue nodded.

“On my last voyage there was… I mean, well. One of the crew… they uh, they said he went mad but… he was … normal? Does that make sense?” Blue bumbled at first, brows scrunched as they tried to straighten the thought.

“Yeah, I guess. I mean… Mad, like crazy, but He was normal just before that. You know, one of the team. He even helped me get oriented with the ship when I first joined.”

Blue pulled their legs in even tighter, feeling some inner working of the ship rumble in the walls against their back. They took a breath and continued.

“He was caught red handed after he stabbed another crewmate at the reactor.”

She felt White stiffen beside her there was a moment of silence and the one rational part of Blue’s brain that was still awake suddenly wondered if this was a good thing to bring up at all, their face beginning to flush further with regret when-

“What happened after that?” He asked quietly.

“We followed protocol. I mean it felt absurd at the time but what else were we going to do?”

Blue gestured her hand lazily in the air like dust to the wind.

“We held a meeting. He was dragged out for questioning. He accused the guy who caught him, the guy accused him back. But everyone only believed he was guilty. I mean, there was… red all over his suit.”

Blue felt themself reliving the memory of it. The fear, the shouting.

They swallowed heavily.

White was listening.

“We were still out in the middle of nowhere and nobody knew where to keep him. People didn’t want to be on a ship with a murderer… so…”

“So…” White echoed in a small voice, not to Blue, but out to the world as he already knew the conclusion.

“We held it to a vote. It was almost unanimous. He was thrown out the airlock.”

“… almost?” He questioned.

Blue looked at the floor, nodding slightly.

“I didn’t vote. I skipped” she admitted in a small voice.

“Why?”

To Blue’s surprise, his voice was free of judgement. Just etched with pure curiosity.

“It… it didn’t feel right. Something was off I just. I just couldn’t prove it. I mean all we had was their words it was like a 50/50 shot in the dark but everyone just took him at his word.”

Blue's head turned as they felt White's hand weave into their own and he gave it a small squeeze. The blue engineer squeezed back and shut their eyes tightly in a wince at the memory.

And then she chuckled, light and hollow.

“You know what was strange?”

“Stranger than a mad man in space?” He questions back, trying to lighten the mood.

Blue elbowed him in taciturn appreciation, tugging his hand again with the motion.

“Okay what. What was strange.”

“As they dragged him out, the guy was screaming that the other one was a monster. And not like a ‘you’ve killed a man!’ kind of monster.”

Blue let go of his hand to mime a gasp, hands to her cheeks.

“-But like, a teeth and claws and what goes bump in the night kind of monster. Like a in Red’s story kind of monster. An Imposter.”

The blue engineer flexed her hands as claws and bared her teeth in a faux growl.

White watched her silently. Listening.

“And after that, when there was nothing else he could do, the guy he just started laughing. A sick and demented laugh the whole way of being dragged into the airlock. … but he was crying.”

Blue sunk back into the metal panel and sucked in a breath not realizing their lip had begun to quiver.

They could feel their heart beat dully in their chest, and for a moment, silence hung in the air.

“… did he say why he did it?” White asked quietly.

“No… no he didn’t. He just insisted it wasn’t him till the end.”

Blue shrugged. “But I mean, he also cursed at us, saying that we’d get what was coming to us and that he would get us too.”

“…”

White leaned his weight back into Blue’s side. His voice rumbled low and even.

“Did anything happen on the rest of the trip?”

She shook her head a little, not that he could see. Her hand finding his again and tracing small circles into the back of it with their thumb.

“No. People accused each other. Everyone was on edge and nobody trusted each other. But nothing else happened for the rest of the trip. We all got to a station and went our separate ways, signed up for different ships or voyages back planet side.”

Blue listened to the hum of the machines for a bit. White returned the gesture of stroking the back of their hand with his thumb. She had almost sunk into a semi comfortable doze when White spoke up again.

“So what do you think?” he said after a while.

“About what?” she asked, not opening her eyes.

“About monsters. Imposters or whatever.”

“Like, do you mean ‘Do I think they’re real?’ or…?”

“Yeah.”

Blue paused to think about it. White might have thought they had actually nodded off if they didn’t start back up.

“I don’t know.” Blue answered honestly. “Maybe? Yeah? Space is big”

They opened their eyes, turning to face White who was looking at them with much more patient anticipation than they expected.

“Uh. Okay so, there on colonies on so many planets we still know so little about with all kinds of crazy life on them. Humans have crazy big imaginations, but I mean, if you think about it, who’s to say. “

Blue rolled her shoulders, shifting up slightly from where she started to sink in her slouch.

“We could run into something dangerous that looks like monsters to us, or we run into something and seem like monsters to them as much as they would. Or maybe there are real monsters ready to gobble us up. Or humans are the real mosters bum bum bumm-”

Blue let go of Whites hand and raise up into clawed poses once more, giving that fake growl and clicking their teeth together in empty playful bites to add to their dry theatrics.

White laughed breathily and Blue felt their heart skip a beat.

“Yes, you’re very scary.” He chuckles “Please don’t eat me miss Blue.”

Blue giggles in an unreserved way. They were starting to feel loopy and the ground seemed to keep tilting. 

“I won’t. So please don’t eat me either mister White.” They finally sighed happily.

White lurched forward unexpectedly and turned to Blue. Surprised, Blue mirrored him, shifting their shoulders to look back at him, the helmets unable to pivot with their head.

“Wha-“

They blinked doe-eyed, this close they could see most of his face, sharp, serious, studying theirs with those amber eyes that felt like they pierced right into Blue. Sleep deprivation was a hell of a thing, Blue could swear in that moment his eyes looked luminous.

White frowned and shook his head, hand absent mildly coming up to scratch his head reflexively though the helmet was in the way.

"Nothing. I- sorry. Nothing." He almost mumbled.

Blue puffed a breath of laughter, sighing away the tension.

“Dork.” She teased with a little smile, reached out reaching out to pat his helmet affectionately.

He let his shoulders sink back against the wall and she could no longer see his face.

The ship pulsed with mechanical life.

“I won’t.” He finally said quietly. And then again even softer. “I won’t.”

She laughed again, bubbling with amusement. ‘He was a strange guy.’

The two of them sat there a little longer, shoulder to shoulder and eventually Blue felt their head starting to droop.

She was coming to the end of her candle wick and keeping her eyes open was proving to be an increasing struggle. They were already out before they could register the fact that they had slumped against Whites shoulder, and could only hear the low murmur of his voice saying something Blue didn’t quite understand before they slipped into the dark of unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this no drafts writing, im checking myself and I wrote the first few chapters in another POV I later changed. There are going to be errors and I'll try and fix them where I can.


	4. Breaker Breaker

Blue roused themself a little later, unsure of how long exactly they’d been out, jerking upright as their body registered it shouldn’t have been sleeping in the first place. It took a few moment’s more to find what else was out of place, brain fuzzy with the drunkenness of her nap.

White was no longer sitting by her side and the room was dark. For a moment Blue worried something might have been wrong with her eyes. 

The room was very dark. An ever-present pitch and without the normally dimmed lights of the night cycle.

Something was very wrong.

“White?” She called out experimentally, using her hands against the wall to guide her as she got up.

There was no response. Blue flicked on the emergency lamps on the side of their helmet, but the lamps failed to illuminate much more than a few feet ahead of them. She didn’t hear anything more than the hum of the O2 machines and her own breath picking up in a hitch of slowly inkling mire of panic.

“White, are you there?”

There was no response.

He had probably gotten up to do some more rounds, but being alone in the dark was unnerving and Blue couldn’t help the worry that crept into their veins. They wish he had stayed with them.

Mustering as much courage as she could, the dark colored crewmate began trailing the wall towards electrical. Something must have gone wrong with the lights.

The usually familiar halls of the ship were now alien and unnerving. She could feel the thrum of ships internal mechanism all around her pressing in. The closing darkness made the corridor feel both claustrophobic and endless as she trailed the walls and made her way past nav.

A nearby vent hissed and creak with some of the underworks stream. Blue shivered with nerves and felt it overwhelmingly necessary to avoid it as she pressed on through to shields, and further around the bend passed coms. She stopped momentarily to poke her head in to the cozy room full of radios and panel and called out.

No one was in or at least one answered.

So they continued on.

The storage was one of the bigger rooms in the ship packed with boxes and supplies. The hold had slightly lower gravity than the extra and some lighter boxes floated in the higher areas of the room. As Blue came to its doorway, it was a wall of darkness. They lingered hesitantly at the doorframe, the pitch of the room squirming with her pulse. Their lips parted in a shaky breath as they hesitantly let go and stepped into the room.

_Thump, tha-Thump Tha-Thump._

Their heart pumped dully against the inside of their chest.

 _‘Oh I hate this.’_ She thought sourly.

She made it to the larger crates strapped in the middle of the room and around to the gas cans when she heard the sound of steps coming from the north half of the room. In a thoughtless hopeful surge to see someone else, Blue hurried forward.

“Hello?” The small cadet called out in the darkness.

She immediately slammed into a wall of black as she rounded the larger crates with an “Oof!”.

It took Blue a second as she patted the strange obstacle in front of her. Then a dawn of recognition made her realized it was another suit. She looked up to see Black towering over her in the dark.

“Black!” She chirped happily, pulling away as she began apologizing. “Sorry! I couldn’t see you in the dark, you blended right in!” Blue gave a soft chuckle. He hadn’t spoken yet, but she was pretty sure she could see his helmet nod.

“Why’d you stop, you absolute brick?” An irate voice scolded behind him.

_‘Ah, that must be Cyan.’_

Blue lean around Black to say hi, seeing Cyan’s dim emergency lights.

“Hey!” They piped up to draw her attention.

“Ah… it’s you” Cyan mused dully. “You know what the hell is going on?”

Blue shook their head, but then realized she probably couldn’t see that.

“No, I was making my way down from O2 to try to see if something blew in electrical.”

“You’d think things would chill on this forsaken peace of shit ship for two fucking seconds.” Cyan grumbled. “We were on our way there too.”

“Mm.” Blue confirmed. “Okay, well it’s probably best we’re all here then. Have you see-“

A hand fell on their shoulder from behind, and Blue’s muscles scrunched involuntarily stopping them mid-sentence. Swiveling their head to the side they met a chest clad in white behind them.

“There you are.” White sighed in relief. “Glad I caught up.”

“White!” Blue finished addressing the ghostly crewmate with surprise. “Where’d you go I-“

“Right, sorry, sorry. Purple had told me to check in with Nav every now and then so I had to leave a second. But then Lights went out. I went back to O2 to check on you but you were already gone.”

Blue smiled small and sweetly, patting the hand on their shoulder in thanks. They were pleased he had tried to check on them but the timing must have been awful.

“Everyone okay?” He asked looking around in the darkness. “I thought I heard Cyan.”

Cyan had walked around the monolith that was Black.

“Right here Romeo.” She grunted. “If you’re all done being touchy-feely, I’d like to not be standing in the dark. Can we move on now?”

Blue laughed at that. They felt better now that everyone was together.

With White still latched on the smaller astronauts shoulder, Blue extended their hand to Black.

“It’ll be easier not to avoid bumping into each other if we link up.”

Black stared for a moment, and Blue was almost sure he seemed surprised by the suggestion. It was… weirdly cute. He was hesitant but took their hand anyways.

 _‘Geeze his hands are big’_ Blue noticed with amusement. They looked up to see Black mirroring the extension to Cyan who looked at it once and chuffed in disbelief. She looked up at Blue, Black and White all staring, waiting.

“You’re not serious.” She prodded with a growl.

Blue shrugged.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Cyan growled, staring them all down, but then grumbled and took his hand anyways. Blue could picture her eyes rolling endlessly like pinwheels.

“Okay let’s go.” Blue announced, now cheerier to not be alone. She missed the look exchanged between White and Black behind her as she lead the charge.

When they had made it to the door way, Blue tried to squint in first, but couldn’t see much.

The light of the room was no kinder than elsewhere on the ship, and much more horribly flashed into view as a spray of broken loose wires sparked here and there like gasps in the darkness.

“What the…”

Blue stared at the spray of sparks with knit brows. That was one clear issue, but what the hell would have caused it?

Blue let go of Blacks hand and patted White to let go, feeling the White’s hand slide back off their shoulder. Blue took the first few steps in.

Their foot hit something slick in the darkness.

“Wha-“ she began again, mumbling, “Hey. Hey. hold up.” They put their hand out to stop the others behind them.

Blue lifted their foot experimentally and it came away with a slight slorp of suction. She could see the trailing residue drip from the tread of her shoe. It was some dark, slick, and tacky substance on the floor. It reflected the low light of her visor’s lights.

“What is it?” White asked quietly behind her.

“There’s something on the ground. I’m not sure, it looks like… oil maybe?” Something wasn’t right about it. Why would there be oil in electrical? She couldn’t smell it with her helmet on, but right now certainly didn’t feel like the time to have it off.

White pushed by them on their left and headed to the breakers. Blue heard a few ticks and then a second later the lights flickered back on in the room.

Their voiced caught in their throat as they gasped a sharp inhale. Blue’s hand shot to their mouth instinctually, pressing to the glass of their helmet.

“Hell in a wicker-fucking-basket.” Cyan cursed from the doorway behind them. “What the fuck is that.”

Blue was standing in a pool of dark red. The color so thick it was practically black.

Looking around they could see a violent spattering painting the paneled walls, partially obscured by the rooms center cabinet. The pool of red was trickling in from around the breaker’s bend.

Blue snapped their gaze to Where White stood, seeing a trail where one of White’s boots had also stepped through it to get the lights. He followed their gaze, looking down at his print, then back at Blue and the wall past. Blue watched wide eyed; knees bending to be ready as they noticed White tense.

White put his hand up, telling them to wait, lifting his other raising a finger telling them to keep quiet. He then began to creep forward to peek around the corner. Despite him telling her to stay, Blue followed him forward.

The scene was horrific. Blood and viscera were everywhere in the other half of the room.

The thick red was scattered across the wall at what must have been an incredibly high velocity, still dripping down the walls and event he ceiling.

Blue felt the color drain from their face, they felt horribly ill.

For once they were glad for their helmet keeping out what would have been an overwhelming, awful stench of iron. And there, slumped to the side of the back of the panel was a broken, limp mass of flesh and bone. A corpse so mauled and brutalized it took a second for Blue to register what they were looking at. A body… or half of one, completely eviscerated from the waist up.

“Holy shit.” She breathed.

“Fuck.” White grimaced.

Blue looked at the legs slumped on the floor. The remains of body had a suit the color of vibrant dandelion yellow. Blue wretched.

“Yellow.” They sputtered out. “Fuck. Oh my god that’s Yellow.”

They turned back sharply, huffing a few breaths before wrenching again. They looked up see Black and Cyan at the door, neither of them had moved, not knowing what to do.

“What did you say?” Cyan barked the question in her usual bravado, but Blue could hear a tremble in her voice.

“It’s Yellow.” They repeated again, bigger this time. “They’re Dead.”

The two exchanged wary glances and cyan took an unsteady foot back.

Black hit the emergency button on the wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short Chapter, more to come soon.


	5. The Meeting

Blue pulled their arms in close to their chest, hugging themself tightly as they looked down at their feet.

Everyone was slowly filling into the cafeteria, bleary eyed and confused to be woken up so shortly after they had gone to bed with no blaring system failures or emergencies to run to. The red lights and blaring siren of the alert system had been silenced as everyone filled in, gathering around the central table their group had been eating at earlier. They could hear Red griping already.

Blue was huddled with the first watch group on one side of the table, White and Black on either side of them while Cyan was pacing behind all with increasing impatience, a string of curses being colorfully woven together under her breath.

The air felt heavy. Blue couldn’t stop staring at the blood slicked on the side of their boots, the deep red showing black when layered with the dark blue of their suit. Glancing to the side, they could see a few brighter speckles on White’s boots mirroring theirs.

They gripped their arms tighter. Blue didn’t want to look anyone in the face. They couldn’t. 

“What the hell is this about? Some us are trying to get some sleep and I don’t see any of the vital tasks going off.” Red whined with groggy irritation.

“Yeah, isn’t it enough we’ve been running around all fucking day?” Lime followed up, leaning on his crewmates shoulder like small lanky tom cat.

There was more disgruntled chattering among the group, then Purple entered in behind the group, shouldering his way past the group until he made it to the table. He addressed the night group immediately; his voice grave. As a veteran he could probably guess the nature of the meeting.

“What’s this about then?” Purple eyed them all individually before giving his attention to the stoic crew mate. “Black. You called the meeting.” 

Black shifted beside Blue, deferring to White. White in turn cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“Well, now that everyone’s here.” He started.

“Not Everyone.” Orange spoke up. “Yellow’s not here yet.”

Blue lifted their gaze to Orange, watching him look back in forth in the group in case he missed her among the taller members. They felt a pang of pain twist in their gut.

They watched as the rest of the group begin to look around too.

“Right. Well um. That’s what this is about.” White began again, his voice lower this time. “Yellow. She’s…”

He tried finding the words.

“She’s fucking dead.” Cyan asserted shoving forward from behind him, to slam one of her hands onto the table. “Yellow’s fucking dead and it wasn’t no accident either.”

Any of attempts of White to deliver the news delicately, Cyan had just ripped the whole fucking bandage off in one fell swoop. Blue heard someone gasp.

The azure engineer turned their attention to Cyan for a second, chewing their lip again. The four of them hadn’t said it out loud yet, not even to each other, but there was no disputing it. Still, Blue didn’t think getting everyone riled up wasn’t going to help.

The crew looked like deer in headlights, a garden of stone statues. Even Lime and Red had finally stopped fidgeting.

“What?”

Blue heard Oranges voice first, wavering with an unsure smile. “W-what. But I-I don’t understand. What do you mean she’s dead? You’re kidding right? You're joking?”.

The night crew looked to each other briefly, then to Purple. When Orange didn’t get an immediate response, he started up again.

“She was fine at the break! She was here. W-what do you mean she’s dead?”

He looked at them all desperately, like he was asking for this to be a sick joke they all planned.

“White?” He pleaded, trying to catch his attention.

White didn’t answer.

Orange switched to Blue, hands pressing into the table.

“Blue?” He pleaded softly. “Come on, I mean what are you guys saying?”

“It’s true.” Blue spoke up quietly. “What Cyan said is true.”

Orange’s gaze locked onto the small cadet.

There was instant chattering among the group. Blue’s grip on her arms clasped tighter; the tough material of the suit bunching in their white knuckled grasp. They turned their face from Orange, scrunching their shoulders up. They didn’t want to chance seeing Orange’s face, obscured by his visor or not, the desperation felt like needles.

Blue noticed Purple shift his weight. Looking down at the table they could see his fingers curl into his palms. They chanced another look around the room.

Lime had let his arm drop off of Red’s shoulder. Both of them had turned to watch Blue when they spoke, then shifted to the entirety of the first watch group. Pink had both his hands behind his neck rubbing it stressfully muttering something Blue couldn’t make out. Green had a hand to the glass over their mouth. Brown was not looking at anyone, arms crossed and their visor turned to the floor.

“You said it wasn’t an accident.” Purple had recomposed himself, his voice steady, but void of any emotion. “What did you see?”.

“We found Yellow’s body in Electrical.” Black’s voice rumbled, unexpressive but clear.

Blue nodded, humming a confirmation to back him up.

“It was a fucking horror show.” Cyan spat. She kicked the beam of one of the cafeteria bench seats.

“We- there was… I mean,” Blue tried. Whites hand found their shoulder again. The larger crewmate was rapidly becoming their anchor to the slipping situation as of late, Blue patted his hand felt a little more grounded.

“She was mutilated.” Blue managed finally. “The lights had gone out. It was nearly impossible to see anything. S-so, the four of us went to go check the breakers, White and I met up with Black and Cyan in storage and then we went to electrical together to get them back on and.. and there was… there was something all over the floor.”

Blue took a breath, swallowing with difficulty as they remembered the way the blood had stuck to their shoes. They continued.

“White got the lights and there was… there was just blood, everywhere.”

They looked to their shoes again, their stomach doing relentless summersaults as bile threatened to climb back up.

“White and I checked around the corner and there was Yellow. I mean, there was most of Yellow.”

“Most of it?” Orange balked to the side, appalled. “What the hell do you mean most of it?!”

Blue looked at him, his fists balled to the side, shaking. Blue nodded a small nod, squeezing Whites hand.

“Her upper torso was just… gone. Like it had been ripped clean off. We could only tell it was her because of the suit, but I-I don’t I just don’t understand how… how it’s even possible I just-“

Blue hiccupped, not even realizing how heavy their breathing had gotten. Their story had become an unraveling of panic foreign to their senses. They thought they were holding together fine before they had started actually talking about it. White squeezed their shoulder. The small engineer tried to steady their breath.

‘Keep it together. Keep it together.’ Was all they could tell themself.

“It was inhuman.” Cyan said with a voice of steal.

“Oh Bullshit!” Orange shouted, coming up to the table and slamming his hands down with more aggression than even Cyan had. “This is fucking Bullshit!” He yelled again.

“It’s true whether you want fucking believe it or not.” Cyan snarled at him and he fell quiet. “You can go see the goddamn scene if you want.”

Purple broke into the conversation this time.

“You said you were sure it wasn’t an accident?” he probed; his body language carefully gaged as he looked at the four of them.

Blue nodded, Cyan was no longer looking at anyone, and Black hadn’t moved.

“Yes.” White answered next to them. “There was no obvious signs of wires being tampered with, no scorch marks or indications of an explosion, and the corpse was to mangled to tell what could have caused it.”

Purple nodded looking down again.

“It must of happened quickly too.” Blue added. “There blood spray on the wall looked like it was at a high velocity, like something ripped her clean in two.”

“Bullshit!” Orange repeated fervently. “You said she was ripped in fucking half. We don’t have anything like fucking chainsaws aboard the ship, so how the hell could that happen if something didn’t explode?”

Blue stayed quiet. They didn’t have an answer.

“And you said you found her legs?” Purple asked, directing it to Blue this time.

“Mm.” The engineer hummed affirmatively again, nodding.

“No signs of the upper torso?”

“Mm-mm.” They doubled up on the negative. “Her whole upper half was gone. I didn’t even see scraps of it, not even her helmet.”

Purple nodded to himself. His fist were still clenched.

“It looked like it might have been there a while though.” Blue offered, “T-the blood was… congealing.”

 _‘It’._ God. Blue closed their eyes. They were talking about Yellow’s remains and- and she was already an ‘it’ mentally. Maybe HQ was right about the colors thing.

“It’s true.” White backed Blue up. Black didn’t say anything, but the azure astronaut just barely caught him nodding in their gated periphery. Blue shifted, realizing they had been hearing a low, low buzzing hum. Black had been humming his responses, confirming like they had, it just wasn’t very audible.

“How is that even possible!?” Orange was furious, pulling himself away from the table. “It’s fucking bullshit! That’s not even fucking humanly possible, are you kidding me?”

He turned around heatedly, jabbing his finger at all of them.

“The four of you were the only on duty! How do we know one of you didn’t fucking do this?”

Blue was taken aback, recoiling from his desperate anger.

“Orange simmer it fucking down!” Purple’s voice broke the air like a gavel. This was a command.

And Orange did. His shoulders drooped and he took a few steps back, his fists bawled by his sides. He muttered an apology and she heard him sniffle angrily.

Purple ignored him and instead addressed Blue again. “You mentioned you were all together before you found the body?”

“Yes.” They confirmed. “I was with White for a long time, Black was with Cyan when we met up.”

Purple turned to Cyan and Black, hand out in question. Cyan answered for them.

“I was having the big lug help me carry gas canisters to upper engine. We were together the whole time.”

“And you never left each other’s sight?”

“Never.” Cyan Answered.

Blue froze momentarily, a thought flickering to mind briefly. White wasn’t there when they woke up. His felt heavy on their shoulder, his presence radiating out of sight behind them as their skin crawled.

_No..._

_No._

He was in nav. He was so close to them the whole time. There was no way he could have made it there and back in that time. No way he would have either. Besides, he had come from the same direction they had when he caught up, his story lined up.

Orange was just making this worse, ready to pick a fight. And Blue understood too, they were pretty sure he was sweet on Yellow since the start. He had been so sad when she had been refusing to talk to him those few days after he scared her.

Purple turned back to Blue.

“Blue?” He asked calmly.

Blue tasted iron. Their stressful gnawing of their inner lip had finally broken skin.

“Never.” They lied.

White’s hand slid off their shoulder.

“Hey! Just because we were the only ones on duty doesn’t mean we were the only ones up and about! I mean what the fuck was Yellow even doing in there?” Cyan’s voice broke through Blue’s spiraling thoughts.

It was a good question. What reason had they to be in there anyways. They would think everyone would be sold at the opportunity to sleep.

“Wires.” Blue declared, aloud and dully, not entirely meaning to.

Cyan turned to them with a look they couldn’t quite place on her face.

“What?” Her voice was uncharactistcally even and small.

“Wires.” Blue repeated, very, very aware of everyone’s attention on them and the now suffocating weight of the room.

“We were in admin together before the break, she had mentioned she still had to finish wires in electrical.”

Blue looked to White to back them up.

“She did I think.” He seconded their story somewhat hesitantly. “Yeah, when we we’re rounding people up for the break, she mentioned something like that.”

“So you knew where she was going to be!” Orange barked at Blue in accusation.

“No!” The blue astronaut refuted, offended he would even think they’d be capable of something so horrid.

“No! I’m just saying that’s why she must have gone there! We told her she didn’t have to worry about it today when she brought it up! But she must have gone there anyways after we ate!”

Orange broke from the table again, pacing angrily.

Cyan had turned away from them, her arms crossed.

Red tried to reach out to Orange, but he shoved his hand away.

Blue’s face felt heated with the indignity of being accused for something so heinous and leaned forward on the table to snap at Orange.

“Besides do you think I’m even capable of something like that? She was ripped in fucking half! You said it yourself that’s inhuman!”

Orange stopped in his track. It was his turn to be at a loss for words. He could see their point.

“It’s correct. What you’ve reported is an inhuman act.” Purple announced.

Blue didn’t understand.

“What happened to Yellow was not human.” He rephrased it punctually. He took a deep breath before he spoke next.

Blue didn’t like this.

“There are things we talk about on these ships like they’re myth. I’m sorry to say… some of them arn’t.

Purple’s words were solemn, and though they seemed absurd, everyone knew his personality was not one to joke about such serious matters.

“Purple.” Brown warned, his jovial dryness now cold and hard. He stared down the captain.

He couldn’t possibly mean what they thought he did.

“We’re looking at the work of a Monster I’m afraid.”

The room was silent.

Orange laughed a horrid, unbelieving and exasperated laugh like all the world had come to mess with him and pressed his hands to the glass of his visor.

His laughter turned to sobbing.

The room was still.

“An imposter, you mean.”

It was Red who spoke out this time.

“You mean there’s an actual imposter on this ship.”

Everyone turned to him. Red looked stricken.

Purple nodded deeply, confirming the lunacy of his statement. “That’s exactly what I fear. Yes.”

Blue’s world felt woozy. They might have stumbled backwards if White’s hand didn’t rejoin their back, keeping them steady.

“You mean it’s one of us then?” Red balked. He jerked is arms back suddenly like he realized he was in a room full of vipers.

“It’s a strong possibility.” Purple said, rolling the statement around in his mouth. He seemed to be struggling with what to say and not cause panic.

‘ _Ha._ ’

Not cause panic when one of them had been turned into a new coat of paint for electrical.

“There could be one or more. I’m not sure. They like to work in pairs, but there’s only one incident at the moment. They could be hiding on the ship or they could be one of us.”

“You’re crazy!” Pink spat out and Blue realized how many people had been quiet in this.

“That’s all just stupid hearsay. Stupid stories made up by crew bored to death. You’re crazy!” He waved his hands, dismissive of the whole suggestion.

“It’s not.” Brown answered, his attention on the group for the first time since everyone had gotten there.

Pink looked at him incredulously.

If there was one person on the ship Pink looked up to absolutely, it was Brown, the well-seasoned, level headed medic.

But now Pink just looked at him like he had grown a second head in the last few second.

“We’ve seen it ourselves. Purple and myself.” He explained flatly, no more interested than if they were discussing a rat problem. “I’d say Red’s heard his fair share of stories about them, but we’ve lived it.”

Pink continued to stare at him with disbelief. Then he swung around and started for the door.

“You know what, fuck this.” He yelled. “Fuck all of this. Fuck all of you. I’m going back to sleep and we can all fucking talk about this when you have your heads screwed back on cause clearly the strain of the last forty-fuck-all hours has gotten to you.”

“Pink wait!” Green called out to him. But it was no use. He was already out the door.

“Somebody go after him!” Cyan groaned, “The fucking two-sparks-and-a-piece-of-lint for brains shouldn’t go on his own.”

Green who had been hesitating at the door between the group and where Pink had stormed off took that as permission and Jogged after him.

The Cafeteria had gone quiet again.

“So what should we do? I-I mean if we think There’s a killer on the ship what do we do?” Blue’s voice warbled a little, not as loud as they could usually muster.

They didn’t want this, not again.

“We take after Cyan’s suggestion.” Purple decided. “We stay in groups; we keep an eye on each other.”

“And let one of us get Killed?” Red’s voice was shrill. He was panicking.

“We don’t have enough evidence to make any accusations, and with any luck it will prevent the imposters from acting if they can be pinned down.”

“Great, live bait everyone.” Cyan spat.

Purple could only nod.

“Seriously?” Murmurs rippled though the group.

“We don’t have any clues.” Purple stated, opening his holodeck. “And I’m willing to bet the cleaners are probably already at the scene.”

The cleaners. Blue groaned. They were automatic maintenance bot’s on the ship that attended spills, dust, grime, and any other number of messes on the ship of almost any size. They were on regular pre-plotted schedules every few hours.

Blue opened up their holodeck which read 5:22 am.

 _‘Shit.’_ They cursed silently.

The bots activated nearly half an hour ago. They would have located the biggest mess first.

‘Their only option at the moment seriously just to gamble?’

Blue knew some point people had to split. There were just too many things on every corner of the ship to be fixed in limited time. Pairs were the only way to keep things running once everyone was back on deck.

Still this was absurd. People’s lives were on the line.

“So how do we decide who goes with who?” White spoke out again, his voice measured. Blue wished he hadn’t asked.

“Some of us still need sleep we can’t keep running on empty or paranoia is bound to get worse.”

“I’ll choose pairs unless you’d like to draw straws.” The captain offered dryly.

Everyone looked to each other but no one argued.

“There will be a group of 3.” Purple stated as he began pointing people out.

“Since Green and Pink have gone off together, we’ll consider them a pair. If you run into them, let them know.”

He pointed first between the Black and Red.

“Black with Red.”

“White, you’re with Lime”

“Cyan with Blue.”

“Orange. Brown. With me.”

Black had moved without any complaint, standing next to Red who looked terrified of the quiet towering crewmate.

For some reason Black offered Red his hand.

Confused and too afraid to refuse, Red took it and the two stood side by side in an odd pair.

In any other situation, it would have been funny and even cute.

The gap Black had left to Blues side had them and Cyan next to each other at an awkwardly sparse arm’s length. She was still avoiding looking at anyone so Blue said nothing and resumed hugging themself tightly.

White gave them final pat on the shoulder then the warmth of his hand was gone.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be alright” He whispered encouragingly to Blue.

Blue wanted to believe him.

Then he left, walking calmly over to join Lime.

Orange didn’t pick up his gaze from the floor, but relented when Brown guided him over to Purple.

“Good.” Purple evaluated. “Now. For the sanctity of this crew. You are forbidden from leaving each other’s sides from this moment forth. You are each other’s responsibility.”

“The three of us,” He motioned to the Doc, and Orange. “Will watch vital tasks. I don’t want to see a single hair one of you out of the Dormitories until we’ll past the Dawn simulation at breakfast. Do you understand me.”

Blue murmured a yes sir with the group, a habit from training. Purple was no longer a friend or a crewmate. Purple was now an instructor. Purple was the captain.

“Good.” He scanned over the group and relented a small bit of advice. “Remember you’re safer in a group than you are alone.”

No one said anything. Purple sighed.

“But hear me and hear me good.” His brief fatherly tone turned cruel and hard with warning. “If you give the slightest intention of bringing harm down upon this crew, or just fancy putting yourself in danger there will be an airlock with your name on it, do you understand me?”

The response was more robust this time.

“Yessir!”

“Get your asses to the bunks.” He ordered.

And with that they were off.


	6. Nightmare

Blue felt stunned. One dead. No Leads. And a potential killer of inhuman capabilities aboard the ship. The idea of just, continuing on… was baffling.

The crew was beginning to break up, filtering uncertainly out of cafeteria. Blue lingered for a second, over hearing Purple instruct Brown to see if he could get the sanitization bots to delay their automated schedules. The medic didn’t make it sound promising.

A grimace tugged Blue’s lips. The idea of the bots mopping up the remains a haunting image she tried to push from her brain. She wondered if the rolling nausea her nerves were causing would ever subside.

White had also stayed back, waiting to talk to Purple. His assigned partner Lime was lounging on one of the cafeteria seats looking unperturbed with his visor flipped up. Blue caught his eye by accident and he grinned too widely, hand twisting in a friendly wave. She felt a shiver spine crawled as if someone had dumped ice water down your back and turned away sharply. She could hear Lime chuckling quietly behind her.

White could handle him… right?

She glanced to the taller crewmate, his back turned to her as he talked to Purple in low voices.

There wasn't going to be a discreet moment to talk to him any time soon.

The engineer sighed. There was a lot to process.

As they turned away, Blue realized that they were much more alone than they ought to be. They glanced around wildly and spotted their assigned partner, Cyan, was already across the room leaving them behind. Scrambling, the space cadet jogged to catch up with her as she reached the door out towards admin. 

The walk back was silent. Just the sound of work boots on hard floors.

Blue was certain the only reason Cyan hadn’t gotten father away was the fact that, for some reason, Black was still holding Red’s hands, blocking up most of the corridor, making it impossible for anyone to pass them.

Red kept stealing back panicked looks to the two of them after Blue rolled up, but whether he was asking for help or simply scared they didn’t know.

They were willing to bet some part of him might have realized he in a group composed entirely of the people on Duty that when the incident occurred.

Eventually he gathered his courage and yanked his hand from Black’s.

“You don’t have to do that!” He snapped.

Black only looked at his now empty hand for a second, then dropped it again without much of reaction. He kept pace with the smaller spaceman as they neared the sleeping quarters.

Blue tried looking to Cyan, but the prickly mechanic had her gaze locked straight ahead, not so much as allowing her a side glance.

“Hey… Cyan?” Blue tried starting up.

“Don’t.” Was all she growled in warning.

So they didn’t.

It didn't take long for the four of them to make it to the dorms. The somewhat sardined communal sleeping quarters of the ship.

While most everyone called them bunks, the beds in the room were more like human cubbies. Little squares that could, by the barest of qualifications, be called “personal rooms”. Sleeping pods that were stacked in twos across the room like an old capsule hotel, equipped with shutters on the outside and small foot ladders in between to reach the ones higher up.

They were mostly sound proof once closed, so you didn’t have to worry about your neighbor snoring amongst other things. 

The rest of the quarters were sparse, a few tables tucked into corners, but if they wanted more recreational stuff they'd have to go to the actual rec room. The only other room connected to this were the locker rooms. A large bathroom space with showers, bathrooms, lockers, and sink that connected in from the right where fresh uniforms could be issued or sent for cleaning. All succinct, space saving, and private enough.

As they entered the bunks, Red scrambled immediately to his top bunk on the far left, shutting his cubby’s sliding shutters with a loud clack. He reminded Blue of an angry squirrel as they watched as the light between the cracks of the shutter doors went dark. He must feel safer that way they surmised.

Black stood by awkwardly for a little bit, staring at his hands. So Blue trotted up and gave him a pat on the back. They wondered if a big guy like him was nervous or perhaps just as sleep deprived like the others.

“Hey, no worries okay?” Blue offered with a smile.

He stared at the smaller crewmate blankly, or so they assumed, then gave them a small nod. Blue felt a rumble where their hand was placed against his back and realized he was humming a yes again. Smiling, they gave him a pat, his sincere reaction warmed their heart.

Then he put a hand out.

Blue tilted their head a moment confused, then tentatively put their hand onto his. It was only then Blue noticed how much they had been trembling. The quiet giant gently held their hand there for a second, their gloved hands comparatively dwarfed in his. He gave the back of them a pat then let go.

Wordlessly, she watched the goliath turn and walk off to his lower bunk on the far side of the room, give a wave good night and climb into the cubby without so much as a rustle.

The engineer was baffled by the interaction yet somehow it made them feel a little better.

Blue thought about it for a moment and smirked. It was a simpler version of a trick used for crying kids. If you handed them a candy or water when they were having a breakdown, sometimes it was enough of a distraction to break the train of thought and get them to calm down a little.

Blue balled their hand in close to their chest and smiled softly. They wondered if Black had any younger family members or something.

She also briefly wondered if the cubbies were cramped for him, he didn't seem to have any trouble getting in, but they couldn’t be as roomy as they were for her for him.

Cyan crossed Blue’s vision, snapping them back into focus. The dour crewmate climbing into her low bunk, diagonal to theirs on the top row.

Without much thought, the azure crewmate took a chance.

“Good night.” Blue bid in a small voice.

Cyan froze briefly, halfway into the bunk but didn’t turn to face them.

Blue was already feeling stupid and regretting their words when to their surprise, Cyan replied.

“Goodnight.” She relented curtly then slammed her shutter tight behind her.

Stunned, Blue found themself standing alone in the middle of the room, lights humming dully overhead.

A large yawn split their lips, pressing out the stress and tension that had plagued them in the whole ordeal, their body begging them for rest. They looked to Pink’s bunk briefly. His shutter was halfway shut and the light was off. The engineer couldn’t tell if he was in or not.

Green’s shutter was fully closed, but they always had it shut occupied or not.

Grimacing, Blue took off their soiled boots, trotted to the bathroom and dumped them into a depositor for cleaning. Padding back, they sluggishly climbed ladder up into their own cube, snapping shut the shutters behind them.

It wasn’t normal for everyone to go to bed straight in their suits. They did actually get down time to dress down in their off time and hang out without the bulky wear. but having to be ready at a moment’s notice the crew had all forsaken that and Blue couldn’t bring themself to shrug out of their grubby gear. She took her helmet off at the very least, slotting it into a storage shelf to the side and tucking a pillow into the ring of collar so it wouldn’t press into her neck.

Her cubby had enough room for her to sit up fully and raise both her arms. The whole box was a little wider than a twin sized bed, but not quite the length of a full.

The silence of it roared like static in their ears. A surreal bubble that could have been anywhere in the world. But it wasn’t. It was a small little box, on a damaged ship in the middle of nowhere… with a monster somewhere on board.

Hitting the light switch behind them, Blue pulled a second pillow in close and drug their blankets up tight so that they could curl into the smallest ball their spine would allow. The blankets wouldn’t make a difference with the suit on nor against beast capable of ripping people asunder, but they made Blue feel better.

Falling asleep was difficult, but eventually uncaring darkness and utter exhaustion took them.

_Sirens blared and lights flashed, filtering the steel pressed walls in bright red hues one moment and sinking them into pitch the next._

_The hallways pulsed with their monochromatic rhythm, the walls alive, throbbing with a strangely familiar rhythmic beat as Blue sprinted down the ship’s corridor._

_Sweat caked their brow and hair matted aggressively to the sides of their face, breath run ragged, heavy with and painful with effort._

_Fear. It coursed through them deep and instinctually._

_This was a hunt._

_They were the prey._

_She passed it again. Trying not to look as her feet thundered down, bolting down the endless corridor of living metal, taking a sharp turn at the closest left._

_She passed it again._

_A right. Again._

_Another right._

_Again._

_Left._

_Again._

_The floor became stickier with every pass, pulling up trails of a blackish, thick, dark red with every desperate step. The smell of iron was strong._

_Finally, when they could run no more, Blue took a last bend with an outstretched arm, swinging them around to a halt._

_It wasn’t there this time._

_She allowed herself to stop, bending over to catch her breath, hand clutching their chest to where their heart rattled with the same rhythm of the walls._

_The floor was a pool of ruby, mirroring the mess above as below._

_Their reflection warbled as footsteps across the hall sent a ripple across the liquid. Someone was approaching. Blue didn’t look up. They didn’t want to._

_It wasn’t laying there this time._

_Blue stared at the Yellow boots that had come to a stop in front of them._

_They didn’t want to look up._

_“You can’t rest here.” Yellow told them gently._

_Squeezing their eyes shut tight, Blue nodded, still panting. Their lungs hurt. They took off once more, dashing by the figure where it stood._

_There were no more turns. The corridor became a long straight path into black, the ground red marble, echoing each step._

_At the end of the stretch, they could see White, standing there waiting for them, the doors open to Caf behind him._

_There was a smile on his face._

_His arms were behind his back._

_He was patient. Waiting._

_And Blue runs._

_If they can just make it. If they can just make it there._

_Echoed laughter rung out, from nowhere and everywhere, hollow and distant as it filled the halls._

_Familiar, reverberating, and echoing as it bounced down the corridor._

_Blue chanced a glance back, the feeling of eyes pressing into their back from behind, but found there was nothing._

_Scrunching their brows in fear in confusion, Blue pressed on determinedly ahead._

_‘White’. They thought. They just needed to get to White._

_As they whipped their gaze back around to where he would have been, Lime’s grin flashed in front of them, inches from their own face._

_Blue screamed as his_ _laughter swallowed them whole._

Blue bolt upright so fast from their bed, it lurched their brain into a dizzy spin. It was dark. It’s absolutely dark. And for a moment they panic, hands scrambling as they met the walls of their cube before they realized it’s was supposed to be that way this time.

Cursing under her breath, the engineer’s hands fumbled for a switch, finding it and flicking it on. Blinded by the cubby’s light, Blue winced, rubbing their face as they blinked away the sleep, the fear, and the pain.

‘You are in bed. You’re okay. You’re okay.’ They chanted wordlessly to themself.

“Just a bad dream. It was just a bad dream.” She whispered like a prayer.

Their chest was still pumping with labored breaths, their neck cramped and their skin felt slick and gross with cold sweat.

Blue watched their hands, staring at their betraying tremble, the feeling of static in the tips of their fingers and began counting. They forced themself to take a deep breath, then another until one after another, they could feel their lungs calm and their heart ease from where it had been trying to punch its way through their ribcage. Their pulse even settling to a dull throb in their ears.

Tentatively, the crewmate reached up to feel around their neck, the pillow was no longer there, tossed to the side in what might have been their nightmare’s thrashing. The ring of the suit’s helmet clasp had dug into their neck, leaving a temporarily angry divot. It made swallowing uncomfortable.

Blue dragged their fingers down their face groaning.

What a nightmare.

When they looked up, they glanced to the alarm clock built into the side of the box, frowning as they noted they had managed to sleep only for about three hours.

It was morning by all technical accounts, breakfast might be an option.

But as Blue shifted back they caught a whiff of themself that made their nose scrunch.

Something else would have to take priority.

Grunting, Blue tossed their blankets to the side and dragging themself to the front of their cubby.

The shutter to their bunk rustled as they tried pulling it open as quietly as possible, looking out under the crack carefully to check if anyone else was up.

When they found the coast was clear, they pulled the shutters all the way open and wriggled backwards out of the slot. Landing barefooted made it almost stealthy as they plotted towards the locker room door. Out of curiosity, Blue paused at the bathroom door to survey the other bunks before moving on.

White’s cubby door was shut where it had been open prior when Black and everyone got here.

Pink’s partially open shutter had not changed.

Nothing else had particularly changed. Blue rocked on their heels, bitting the scab on their lip from where they had previously anxiously gnawed it open, feeling the sting of the sensitive skin burn.

The Locker room door opened with a creak and Blue pushed in passed it, shutting it firmly behind them.

One settled inside Blue could not peel off their grimy suit any faster. Hastily emptying their pockets into their locker without much thought.

They let the thick material of the suit and their lighter basic wear they wore underneath pile to the floor before scooping it all up and shoving it into the closest cleaning chute for a full decontamination cycle, making the mental note they would have to shove their bedding in too when they had the chance.

Blue scrolled through a panel on the side of the machine, punching in a short code and a second later a pressed clean and fluffy towel was issued out of a canister to the side. Grabbing it and tossing it on a closer bench, the crewmate trotted determinedly to the showers, eager to rinse the grime of the last three particularly stress full days down the drain.

They were quick. Scrubbing their skin and hair with callous abandon, in a desperate busy need to be clean. Their desperate strokes with soap nearly bruising them as they scrapped of the layers of grime that had accumulated over the past few days of sweat and panic.

The temptation to just stand in the heated water and just feel the warmth soak into their bones was a siren call to their wary system, but Blue was too wound. Having the large shower room empty and all to themself would have been an absolute luxury a day ago. Now it only made them feel vulnerable and nervous. 

They massaged and teased the grease from their scalp, washing and rinsing it three times over until they finally felt lighter and free. 

They stood in the warmth of the water a while longer, face turned to the stream as they closed their eyes, feeling it sooth against their eyelids and cheeks. They sucked in a steam filled shaky breath, then reached out, turning the nozzle from kind warmth to a stark freezing cold that sent goosebumps raising along their skin in defiance. Blue pressed their face to the water as it brushed away comfort and left their mind feeling clearer under the sharpness of it's sting.

When they could finally manage it, Blue looked down, staring at the tiled floor, watching the water circle into the drain at their feet.

Their shoulders began to shake as the space cadet sunk into a quiet sob, letting out the last of the horridness within them to wash down the drain with the suds.

It had all been just much too much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter, but please enjoy!


	7. Clashing

A kind blanket hollowness had replaced the heavy lump that had burrowed into their chest as Blue stepped out of the showers. They could already feel the puffiness under their eyes as their dull gaze trailed the floor, watching the way the skin on their arms pricked like gooseflesh against the cold air of the locker room as water dripped onto the tile around them.

The crewmate grasped their waiting towel from the bench and held it close. A lingering warmth from the fresh dry towel offered a small comfort as they pressed it to their face, drinking in the clean smell of detergent so dethatched from the sweat and grime of the crew’s recent struggles. Part of them wished they could just wrap themselves in it completely and squirrel themselves back into their cubby for 12 more hours of sleep.

They sighed deeply, already knowing that wouldn’t be possible.

The sound of the boots on the tile made them flinch.

Blue’s gaze snapped up, torn from their brief respite as Cyan appeared on the far side of the room.

The spitfire crewmate had frozen in the by the door, holding her shower kit and a towel under one arm and her helmet in the other, clearly not expecting to find the other blue clad crewmate there. They both stared each other down for a moment, tense, until Cyan puffed an irritated breath and B-lined to her locker on the other side of the bench. Blue sighed softly and turned to towel off their short hair.

The room was full of tense and awkward silence and the sound of Cyan slamming her gear into her locker. Blue was just hoping to throw on their own gear and go as fast as possible to escape the tension. Blue had just zipped up their suit and was shrugging on a new pair of boots when it clicked that the noise in the room had stopped. A clearing of the throat sounded behind them.

Blue turned to Cyan who had come up beside them, the taller crewmate’s head turned to the side avoiding eye contact, fiddling with her half pulled off suit was tied around her waist where it synched in her tank top.

“Um.” Blue stated, ready to begin explaining that they were almost done and would be out soon but a heavy puff from Cyan silenced them.

“I.” Cyan began, chewing the word like bile. Blue stared like a deer in headlights, too nervous to move.

“I..” Cyan tried again, biting out each word, stiff and punctual. “Am… Sorry.”

“What?” Blue responded before they could think, surprised. They felt like kicking themselves immediately.

Cyan glared at them, gritting her teeth.

“I’m. Sorry.” She growled again. “I… should have…” She sighed rolling her shoulders back, groaning in irritation.

“I shouldn’t have snapped at you and inflamed everything, so, I’m sorry okay?” she snapped.

Blue puffed a laugh in shock, completely caught off guard

Oh. Oh okay. Cyan clearly had been trying to work on this, but they had never heard an apology from her before. They weren’t sure Cyan had ever apologized to anyone, ever.

Cyan glared harder, barring her teeth in a grimace at Blue’s laugh.

“Look if you’re above this you can go-!“ she started to snarl.

The smaller cadet immediately put her hands up, waving away the miscommunication.

“No, no, sorry. Sorry I was, you just surprised me is all.” Blue eased.

“Uh, It’s, it’s okay, really. I know its… everything has been… well.” Blue paused, it felt weird trying to put it into words. “Awful… the past few hours.”

Cyan eyed them suspiciously before she let her shoulders sag the letting out the tension they had been holding.

“Still...” She grumbled. “I shouldn’t have.”

Blue thought for a moment, then tilted their head curiously. There was an out of place sense of depth to Cyan’s words that felt strange.

“…Thank you.“

Cyan didn’t look at them but grumbled something affirming under their breath and fiddled with Blue’s open locker door. It creaked with each small push back and forth.

It was strange to see this side of their tough crewmate.

Blue offered a tentative smile.

“Uh… how are you… holding up? Don’t take it the wrong way, but this seems like … this… really got to you.”

Cyan stiffened, not expecting the gesture maybe.

“I’m fine.” She responded after a second, not sounding fine. “I’m.- it’s.”

She was struggling with her words. Her lips were pursed in a heavy frown and for a second Blue thought they could see her chin tremble. She shook her head and focused forward to say what she meant-

Blue continued to pull on their other boot, locking it in, but when the silence went to long, they looked back up with concern.

“Yeah?”

There was an odd look of surprise across her face, her eyes trained in an intense stare, Cyan had stopped fiddling with the door.

Blue blinked, confused, trying to follow where her gaze was lock to.

She was staring at something in Blue’s locker.

“…. the fuck-?” lighter colored crewmate muttered.

“What?” Blue asked. “What is it?”

Cyan snagged something out of Blue’s locker, flipping it over and studying it fiercely. The just calmed cadet now spun back at Blue, her fist slamming into the locker by their head with a resounding bang that made their ears ring. Cyan’s arm effectively caging them in place.

“Ow! What are you- ?”

Cyan was in their face now, scarier than Blue had ever seen them before.

“Hey what the fuck is this.” She growled inches from their face. “Why the fuck do you have this?”

“What?” Blue tried not to stammer, eyes flickering between Cyan’s face and the thing shoved forward, not sure if they should take their eyes off the angry crewmate.

When they could finally focus on the object in question, Blue felt the blood drain out of their cheeks.

It was Yellow’s ID card.

Crewmates were supposed to have their ID’s on them at all times.

They had forgotten to give it back before-

Cyan’s fist slammed beside them again. The sound bounced in the room.

“Well?!” She barked. “Why the fuck do you have her ID?”

“She left it, okay?!” Blue shouted back, face twisted between fear and ferocity to hold their own against Cyan’s aggression.

“Yesterday, when White was calling everyone for break, she was stuck on cardswipe, he surprised us and- and she left it on the table.”

The coiled crewmate stared them down intensely, leaning in as menacingly as possible. Blue tried not to bite their lip as they mustered their fiercest look back and held their ground. Prickles of adrenaline tingled their spine.

“Are you lying?” Cyan threatened, her face dark.

“No! Fuck.” Blue recoiled at the suggestion. “No okay, you can ask White! We talked a bit before break, she was really out of it. We had to talk her out of doing more tasks before food, like wires and stuff, she must have forgotten- “

Cyan thundered in frustration and slammed the locker again, pushing themselves back and out of Blue’s personal space. Blue glanced to the dent in the locker beside them before cautiously watching the disgruntled crewmate pace back and forth.

“Look! I was going to give it back, but I didn’t get a chance before-“ Their words faltered at the end. “Before…”

Cyan kicked the bench.

“Okay I get it, Shut up! Just Shut up!” Cyan growled, kicking the bench. “Aughh!”

“What the fuck is your problem!?” Blue finally snapped back.

Cyan wheeled on them.

“IT’S MY FUCKING FAULT!” She roared.

The echo of her voice bounced against the metal around them.

Blue stilled.

The air went still and brittle.

All the strength and aggression was gone from their crewmates face. Instead, in that moment Cyan looked like a frightened and regretful child as her face crumpled with emotion.

Her words seemed to have even surprised herself.

“What?” Blue asked in a meek voice.

“It’s my fault she went to wires.” Cyan spoke firmly and low this time, staring at the floor, balling her fists at her side. “I-I fucking yelled at her last night, before break for doing a shit job in electrical. I was going to help her out but she looked so fucking miserable that I just sent her off.”

Cyan slumped down onto the bench, shoving her hands in her face and groaned.

“Augh, god –fucking dammit. She- she must have come back on her own after to try again. That’s why she was in there. It’s my fucking fault.”

Blue didn’t know what to do.

“Cyan-“

“God, fuck.” the sullen crewmate swore under her breath.

Blue could see Cyan heaving quietly and felt a twang in her chest. It was scary to see someone who seemed so strong break down.

“Cyan-“

“What?” She half growled, half hissed though their teeth. “Shit, I’m sorry. fuck. What?”

“That’s not. I mean it’s. It’s not your fault she chose to go in there okay?”

Blue fumbled trying to find a good way to string their words together.

Cyan glared at her, unbelieving and sniffling.

“It could have been any fucking one of us that turned up like that last night okay? She was just unlucky. It could have been me okay, I still have tasks in there. I mean it could have been you!” Blue put her hands out in emphasis. “Or White, or Black or anyone! If they just decided to wander. We don’t know why that thing decided to- to attack, but it did!”.

Blue rubbed her hand across her face exasperated, knitting their brows as they continued.

“If one of us were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and, look, fuck it, still can be, I doubt it’s gone. But what did kill her was a monster! You saw what it did! It would have gone after any one of us eventually if it planned to in the first place!”

Cyan stared at the floor, and wiped an arm across her face.

“You saw what happened, you didn’t, I mean none of us could have done that. That’s not your fault…” Blue tried.

Cyan was quiet and Blue let their arms drop by their side, spent of anything else to say.

Blue groaned aloud this time.

“Come on…” They pleaded without direction.

Cyan wouldn’t look at them.

Eventually, Blue turned, gathering up the rest of their things.

“Look. Take a shower, cool your head. Go back to sleep if you need. We just… we just need to watch each other’s backs okay.”

Blue slammed their locker shut with more force than they meant to and began to stomp out of the room, huffing a heavy sigh.

“Blue?”

Cyan’s voice sounded impossibly fragile and unlike them. It made Blue impossibly uneasy. Cyan didn’t look up from where she sat curled forward on the bench, studying the floor, her hands clasped tightly together.

“What?” Blue asked dryly, turning their head back to her.

“I…Thank you. And again.. I’m sorry.”

Blue said nothing for a moment, then turned away.

“Me too.” They seconded.

And with that the smaller cadet pushed their way out of the locker room.

“OOF.”

Blue colided into something immediately, knocking their helmet out of their arms and onto the floor.

“For the love of-“ They growled, reaching for it, they glared at the road block, Red, who had been bumped back a few paces by the impact.

“Red what the hell are you doing just standing at the door?” Blue snapped, quieter since they were now in the dorms, but irritated none the less.

Red was clutching his bath kit close to his chest, stacked inside his own helmet. He looked like a kid who had gotten caught sneaking into a staff only room.

“I heard… There was shouting and a …crash.” He began to explain.

Blue stared him down.

“So what, you just stood there?”

“I-“ A color true to his name burned along the top of Red’s ears. ”I was…”

“You heard crashing and yelling. And you just stood there?” Blue challenged again, feeling the venom that had piled up from their encounter now pour out into their words.

Red looked wide eyed and shrunk sheepishly where he stood.

Blue lifted their chin and glared down at him, then shoved open the locker room door.

“Well, be my guest, go make sure Cyan is still alive and kicking. If she doesn’t tear you a new one be sure to let me know.”

Red glanced at the open door to Blue’s scowl nervously. His mouth opened a few times, but faltered.

“Blue I’m sorry I-“

“Go.” Blue ordered. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“Shower. Find your buddy whether it’s Black or, hell, take the royal piss queen herself. Then go get some damn breakfast.”

Red traded his weight between his feet, looking embarrassed. When he found there was nothing else he could say, he instead nodded, then ducked past Blue and scuttled into the locker room as quickly as he could.

Blue groaned. They didn’t want to be this angry at people, but they were riled.

Shoving what they didn’t need into their cubby, the sullen cadet finished fully suiting up, they were about to shove their way out of the dorms when they stopped, cursing under their breath.

They forgot Cyan was their assigned partner.

For her sake or their own they couldn’t just split from her given the current circumstances.

Blue grit their teeth and let go of the handle, dragging themselves over to slump in one of the small tables and slumped into a chair to wait.

Blue weighed their conversation with Cyan in their mind. If anything had come from their blow out with Cyan in the locker room, it was that they were fairly certain Cyan was probably crew. She definitely would have had an easy time killing Blue there and then if she was going to. She couldn’t have known Red was at the door either.

The engineer sighed, slumping down further and tried not to nod off as they reluctantly waited for their partner.

What felt like a seconds later, Blue startled awake to the sound of tapping inches from her face.

Wide-eyed, she stared, bewildered by the white gloved hand that tapped on the front of their helmet.

“Mmmmmmnnm” Blue whined. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to tap on the glass?” Blue growled though a yawn.

White chuckled softly.

“Maybe.” He mused. “Didn’t get much sleep did you?”

“… no.” Blue admitted, wriggling to a more comfortable position in the chair, stretching their limbs out slightly until it pressed the air in their chest. “Then again I don’t know how anyone did.”

Blue looked around the room. Not much had changed. A few other slots had been opened. Black was gone, so was Lime. Red’s and Cyan’s cubbies were left open. Orange probably slept in medbay under Brown’s supervision on the nightshift. Pink and Green’s slots hadn’t changed from the way they were last night.

Blue frowned.

There was a gnawing sensation in their stomach that wasn’t just hunger.

“Hey, where’s Lime?” Blue asked, turning their head back to White. “He’s your partner right?”

White crossed his arms, looking across the room to where Blue had been looking at the bunks.

“He went ahead with Red and Black. They left a minute ago.” White said, jabbing his finger at the door.

“Oh.” Blue mumbled, tracing the sides of the lounging chair.

“Uh, how is Lime by the way, you sure you’re okay being paired with him? He… I mean no offense he’s kind of a creep.”

Blue could see White smile through the tint of his helmet.

“He’s manageable.” White said wryly. “Though speaking of hard to handle, what was with Red? He slunked around you like a kicked dog when they were leaving. Something happen?”

Blue grunted.

“Kinda. It’s fine, I’m… we’re… you know everyone’s on edge. I sort of snapped at him earlier…. uh.” Blue looked around White. “Did Cyan happen to go with them?”

“Cyan?” He repeated. “No, I haven’t seen her yet. But Red fled the bathroom with his hair still dripping so I’d say she’s probably in there?”

“Mm.” Blue hummed sullenly.

“What, you fight with her too?” White jested.

Blue said nothing. White scoffed in surprise.

“No kidding. Since when were you the angry type?” he teased.

The engineer sunk further down into her chair shoving her hands to her helmet.

"I’m not! I’m just. I’m tired White, I’m so goddamn tired. And I didn’t start it anyways.”

The taller crewmate laughed.

“Cyan stated a fight? I would never have guessed.” He drolled sarcastically.

Blue smiled despite themselves. “Okay, okay smart-ass, enough out of you, I still have to wait for her anyways.”

“Wait for who?” Cyan’s prickly voice cut across the room.

“You.” White said warmly back without missing a beat.

Cyan’s rough nature never seemed to get to him. Blue wasn’t sure if anyone did really, the more they thought about it, they’d never seen him riled.

“What, are you talking about me behind my back?” Cyan grumbled.

“Yes.” Blue exasperated dryly. “About how you take so goddamn long to shower, we’ll starve before you’re done.”

Cyan looked over the both of them quietly.

“You didn’t have to wait.” She said shortly.

“Yes, Cyan, I did.” Blue sighed, lugging themselves out of the chair. “Because, like it or not, we’re assigned together and I’m sure as hell not getting chewed out by the Captain. And like I said I’m going to watch your fucking back.”

The pale blue crewmates face scrunched in a way Blue had trouble reading. Cyan said nothing, turning away from them and tossed her things loosely onto her bunk. She pulled on her helmet and in quick succession, clicked it and her cubby shut.

“Fine. Let’s go.” She grumbled, and shoved passed them out the door.

Blue looked to White, then promptly elbowed him lightly in the ribs for the smug smirk on his face.

“Hush you.” Blue chided and followed after Cyan’s wake.

“Didn’t say anything.” White defended, chuckling in a hushed tone as he trailed after into the halls of the ship toward Caf.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> still alive, sorry, it has been a while


End file.
